From the library of St Clerans House, in the western part of Ireland near Galway. The house, designed by Sir Richard Morrison, began in 1784 and was completed in 1811. During its construction most of the castle, Isercleran was demolished and the stone reused. In 1795, the owner, John Burke inherited quite a Large fortune on the death of his grandfather but squandered most of it. His eldest son James Hardiman Burke inherited St Clerans. He married Ann Luisa O Hara of Raheen in 1817. She was by all accounts a very beautiful and kind woman full of tenderness who was not afraid to roll up her sleeves when it came to helping the poor. During a plague epidemic in The Claddagh, Galway city she went among the poor and nursed the sick. James had a distinguished military and political career, serving in the British army, 7th Royal Fusiliers in the Napoleonic wars and later as Mayor of Galway 1820-22 and again in 1829. In the 20th Century St Cerans was owned by the Hollywood fim director John Houston between 1952-1971.